The following photos show colour samples made of the six patterns currently available for the Model 20 and Model 21 pens. (Patterns for the Model 1 and Model 10 pens are mostly different, with only the fluted pattern being in common.)
From the top to the bottom the patterns are: bricks; ammonite; fluted; vaulted panels; harlequin; and basket weave. (I modified the basket weave pattern to be slightly flatter after I had printed about 30 of these samples, so see a photo of the basket weave pen for a more accurate picture.)
Blues
- PolyAlchemy Aquamarine: Super shiny and vivid, like most of the PolyAlchemy range. Looks good in any pattern and works very well as a band colour.
- Aurarum Silky Blue: A lovely light to mid blue. A good match for Monteverde Caribbean Blue.
- UP Fila Hawaii Blue: Gloss but not super shiny, it works better with the bricks and basket weave patterns than the others. An excellent choice for bands as it offers strong contrast with other colours and darker blues.
- FormFutura High Gloss Blue: A rich mid blue that is probably similar to the infamous Noodler’s Baystate Blue. I can’t say for sure because I am too messy to be trusted with that ink!
- PolyAlchemy Night Sky: The richest, deepest, shiniest blue that I have. Makes a stunning pen in any pattern.
- ProtoPasta Night Before Blue: A deep blue with just a touch of teal and a few silvery sparkles scattered through. Not very shiny and so the ammonite pattern becomes very indistinct.
- Siddament Crushed Electric Purple: This iridescent purple-blue has lots of sparkles that seem to be the same colour as the Aquamarine filament. More blue in real life than in this photo, in my opinion.
- Siddament Burnt Titanium: Another iridescent and sparkly filament that has come out less obviously blue in the photo than in real life. The photo of the Model 20 below gives a better look at this colour.
Greens and golds
- Polymaker Aurora: a sparkly and slightly iridescent olive greenish filament that looks much better in person than in this photo. Not as shiny as some other filaments and so the ammonite and harlequin patterns work less well than the others. Look at the rightmost green sample to see how the ammonite pattern works with a super shiny filament.
- Gold-like from an unremembered manufacturer: full of glittery particles. A slightly darker interpretation of gold that works really well for the bands on a pen.
- Prusament Galaxy Green: a translucent rich green with some silver sparkles.
- Prusament Vival La Bronze: A very gold-like bronze that works very well with all patterns.
- Polymaker Neptune: A teal colour that has sparkles and iridescence that makes it hard to photograph. A very good match for Van Dieman’s Ink Devil’s Kitchen.
- Aurarum Silky Gold: A lovely yellow gold. Yes, the printing of the sample failed just as the basket weave pattern began. Not every print turns out perfect!
- PolyAlchemy Misty Green: Super shiny, like most of the PolyAlchemy filaments.
- Prusament Vanilla White: Slightly translucent and not quite bright white. It has more character than the plain whites which can be a bit stark and boring.
Blacks and greys
- PolyAlchemy Abyss: Super shiny black. Yep black. Who ever heard of a shiny black fountain pen?
- PolyAlchemy Onyx: Super shiny dark grey that may be the most common Platypus pen colour. Goes well with all band colours, but Aquamarine and Scarlet look great.
- Siddament Ash Grey: about the same darkness as Onyx, but with a slightly brown overtone that means that it goes well with gold bands. Nice stuff.
- ProtoPasta Dark Gray Carbon Fiber: Yes, it has chopped carbon fibre in it that makes it matte with a slight sheen and gives it a slightly rough texture in the hand. It feels really good. The slight blue tinge to its colour is real but I didn’t really notice it before taking the photo.
- ProtoPasta Black Carbon Fiber: Like the grey CF, matte with a slight sheen and feels good in the hand.
- X3D Diamond Black: Not a true black, but a deep dark purplish black with silvery sparkles. A good choice for black bands because it is not a ‘plain’ black.
- ProtoPasta Steel-Filled: A grey PLA filled with powdered stainless steel. Matte with just a few very fine silvery sparkles from the powder. It has a lovely slightly rough feel and is almost twice as heavy as standard PLAs and so it add a few grams to a pen. ProtoPasta offers other metal-filled PLAs and I have the iron- and bronze-filled versions. The iron-filled is slightly darker than the steel-filled and the bronze-filled is brown. These filaments can be processed to be more metal-like and can be induced to patina, although even the iron-filled does not seem to do so without treatment. See here for the manufacturers information: https://proto-pasta.com/collections/all/contents_metal-powder
- FormFutura Silver High Gloss PLA: The most silvery filament that I have found, but perhaps not quite as silvery as in this photo.
A nice pair of pens. Left: a Model 10 pattern 2 in Misty Green with Vanilla White bands. Right: a Model 20 fluted pattern in Silver and Scarlet. The gunmetal grey clip on the Model 20 looks silvery because of its smooth reflective surface.
Pinks and reds
- Siddament Crushed Quartz: Slightly iridescent and with a pale blue glitter. A striking colour that would pair well with black or Aquamarine bands.
- PolyMaker Rose Gold: A pale pink that does not do much to make me think of rose gold, but according to Wikipedia rose gold has a variety of colours depending on its copper content. I would probably pair this with white bands.
- Filaform Wine Red: A little more pinkish than the photo implies.
- Azure film Perla Red: A mid red with a pinkish tinge that doesn’t come through in the photo. The “Perla” might be a typo on its label as I have a “Pearly Blue” from the same company…
- Siddament Crushed Abyssal Red: This iridescent and sparkly red has a magenta tone that can even tend to purple in the right light. A very interesting colour.
- ProtoPasta Heartthrob: A deep red with a fine shimmer. A very good band colour for grey pens.
- No-name brand Red that I call Scarlet: Super shiny and vibrant red that, to my eye, is a good match to the Ferrari red. A great contrast band colour.
- Siddament Galaxy Red: A slightly orange red with sparkles. I wish I sold more pens in this colour because I accidentally purchased a second roll of this filament!
Browns etc.
- X3D Copper: This is less coppery and more orange than X3D might have intended. It is a good orange and so I will not dis it any further.
- Siddament Crushed Earth: A brownish red with a tinge of magenta and a light blue haze from sparkly specks. It’s hard to describe and looks a bit more interesting in life than in this photo.
- Prusament Mystery Brown: A wonderful colour that runs from dark red to brown with purple undertones, depending on the light. Imagine a cross between the dark bits of Diamine Writer’s Blood and Akkerman SBRE Brown.
- Siddament Ash Grey: A grey with brownish tinge. Probably less brown than it appears in this photo (getting colours right in photos turns out to be quite hard!), so look at it in the photo of blacks and greys and make an average.
- ProtoPasta Double Espresso: A great brown with coppery sparkles. Less chocolatey than it looks here. Check out the photo below of another view. Works well with cream (like the coffee for Americans!) and copper bands.
- PolyAlchemy Alpha Brass: A little darker in real life. A wonderful deep, classy brown that works very well with all patterns. Bronze or copper bands have been popular.
- ProtoPasta Bronze-filled HTPLA: Another metal powder-filled PLA. Nearly twice as heavy as ordinary PLA, so it adds heft to a pen. It can be polished to become more like bronze, but that would be up to you. Once polished it will naturally develop the greenish patina of real bronze.
- PolyAlchemy Bronze: This was my first bronze filament and it is what I consider ot be a bronze colour. Works very well with all patterns as the main colour and exceptionally well as a band colour.
A Spectrum
- Filaform Wine Red: A slightly more accurate representation of this pinkish red filament than shown in the Pinks and Reds section above.
- Spectrum Ruby Red: A bright red that is a little less intense;ly red than the Scarlet. Good for bands and whole pens.
- Spectrum Spicy Copper: A very good copper colour. Less orange than the other copper colour that I offer.
- Spectrum Glorious Gold: Not exactly gold, but a very good colour for bands of dark pens.
- Spectrum Apple Green: a bit paler and much, much shinier than a Granny Smith, the classic green apple.
- Spectrum Indigo Blue: Yep, it’s a convincing indigo blue!
- Spectrum Amethyst Violet: A delicious purple that is not overpowering like the PolyAlchemy Nightshade. Oh, wouldn’t they go well together!
- PolyAlchemy Nightshade: The deepest, richest, darkest purple that you could possibly want. The purple brother of the Night Sky blue.
Other colours?
Yes, I have quite a few other colours and I collect filament like some fountain pen enthusiasts collect inks. If you want something that you don’t see here then just ask.